Sacred Scrolls; Chapter 22

 

Sacred Scrolls; Chapter 22

© 2021 by Amber Wright

DROPPED FROM THE SKY

Junia blinked twice before Linus' words registered. “I don’t have that type of trouble, Linus. I just meant T-R-O-U-B-L-E itself! He’s an infectious man and I know that for a fact.”

At that, Linus looked troubled. “You shouldn’t speak like that about a deacon in our church, Adher’fi.”

“Deacon!” Junia rolled her eyes, disturbed beyond measure. “Linus, how can you imagine a person as him calling himself a deacon, using his God-given power in a way I would call…satanic.”

Linus stared, silenced for once.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Junia quieted her voice. She swallowed, “Believe me.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Linus wore a puzzled expression.

“You asked. Besides, you’re the only one around here who knows more than most though you’re only thirty. You knew and remember Saint Paul when he was alive.” She gave him a sisterly admiring look. “Doesn’t Paul tell us in his writings of people misusing their God-given powers to do the work of Satan?”

“I remember him and his writings.” Linus smiled, looking past her with a faraway glaze to his dark eyes. “My father and Paul were friends back in Rome.”

Junia gave a nod, remembering.

“I do believe you, Adher’fi.” Linus turned back to her with sober eyes. “Paul did tell us there would false brethren, even those serving in the church. He also said it is no surprise if there be found deceitful workers for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”

Junia gulped with a nod, realization dawning into her. Satan transformed into an angel of light. She let out her breath very slowly.

“If Deacon Demas turns out to be infectious, as you say he is,” Linus sighed, “all I can say is be careful, Adher’fi.”

“I will.” Junia promised him, suddenly smiling in spite of the occasion as she threw out her palms for emphasis. “I’ve got fists, feet and this tongue here so don’t you worry about me, my Adher’fos!”

“Just don’t do anything you’ll have to repent of, Junia.” Linus grinned and shook his head, pointing his first finger at her as he turned to return to the field, sickle in hand. “Stay out of trouble now.”

“I’ll try.” Junia called back to him and suddenly found a lump forming in her throat. Those were Demetrius’ exact words before his casting out.

She scrubbed at her eyes and yanked her veil more closely around her face so no one could see her tears. God, help me not to end up like him! Please, Lord, save him and poor Andronika from that pit-hole called sin. They need You more than they realize. I know You can do it. I know You can... She entered their side garden and found her eight year-old nephew catching a ball by himself. He looked up at her hopefully.

“Will you play with me?” His hopeful look turned into a huge smile.

“I sure will, John.” Junia was glad for an excuse to stay outside a while longer for she did not wish to speak to Tiria just yet. So she laid her veil on a nearby chair and grinned. “Catch!”

The ball flew over John’s head and, moment by moment, Junia’s troubled thoughts began to fade.

~

As if dropped from the sky, Elder John appeared in the city. On his very first day there, he met the bishop and deacons at the church for a regular meeting as he did whenever he came into town.

After a while he inquired directly, “How is the charge I left with you, Bishop Diotrephes?”

Bishop Diotrephes looked startled as he shook his head slowly, adding a shrug. He finally spoke. “What do you mean, Elder John?”

“The young man,” Elder John spoke boldly, “and the soul of our brother in which I left in your keeping while I was away at Ephesus? How is he—Demetrius?”

Bishop Diotrephes hung his head. “He is dead, Elder John.”

Elder John stared at the bishop. “How and by what death? Why did no man tell me?”

“He is dead to God.” Bishop Diotrephes spoke more quietly, tears rimming his wrinkly eyes. “First, he stole from our treasury not long after you had gone. Then, he robbed a merchant’s stall to pay back the church. We gave him space to repent of his wickedness but he would not. Now he is a robber and lives in the mountains with a company of villains like himself. His band of robbers now terrorize this city.”

At his final remark, Elder John began to rent his clothes and said agonizingly, “A fine keeper of his brother’s soul I left here! What have you done? What have you done!”

Deacon Demas stepped up with a haughty tone to his voice. “If it was a brother’s soul you left here, it would still be here.”

“Elder John,” Bishop Diotrephes’ voice stiffened with a self-righteous dignity, “as you have said yourself before, he went out from us because he was not of us.”

Elder John stared at the bishop, mind whirling. How can he say that so calmly now? To use my own words against me. Lord, what have I found in Your temple—the sellers that You found? Only these sellers are not sellers of sheep and doves, but sellers of their brothers souls to trade it for so-called ‘peace of mind’. What have we left undone?

Without another word to the council, he took Deacon Junius by the arm. “My Fil’os, may I lodge with you this night?”

“Of course.” Deacon Junius agreed willingly. “I thank you.”

~

Junia practically burst with delight as her father came into the kitchen with Elder John. She and her mother were preparing supper. The spoon in her hand shook when she saw him. She had not expected him to come back so soon, but she had prayed…for her own sake as well as Demetrius’ sake.

“Thank God you have come back, Elder John!” Junia said by way of greeting, shaking the white-bearded man’s hand. “I have prayed for your return and you have come!”

“I am glad to see that I was missed.” Elder John’s eyes twinkled as he smiled down at his “adopted granddaughter” who admired him greatly.

“Sorely missed.” Junia grew sober, thinking why she had prayed for his return. “If only you could have been here these terrible things would never have happened…” She halted, choked with emotion, felt awkward as a tear slid down her cheek.

“Why are the tears, my Fil’os?” Elder John's voice was kind, firm.

Junia looked up from the brick floor, blinking away her blurry vision. “I needed to talk to you because I knew you were the only one who could help.” A deep sniff.

“Is that the reason of the tears, Junia?”

“Yes,” the word sounded feeble compared to the situation.

“Will you tell me then? I would like to help.”

“I will tell you as we eat.” Junia gave him a smile and brightened a little. “You must be hungry.”

A short while later, the four of them sat down to supper.

After Elder John asked the blessing over the food, he nodded to her. “Please begin. I want to hear it all. No keeping back for if it is as serious as it appears to be, I must get to the bottom of this and know all. Do not be alarmed, my Fil’os, I’m here to help. And I shall! So speak on.”

Junia told the whole story with only a few interruptions whenever she had to take a bite or when she answered a direct question. At the end, Elder John sighed and Junia stared at her empty plate with no more words inside her. All that she had kept secret, for good reasons and good intentions, had been emptied from her. That inward pain of holding her tongue—when she knew she should have told—left her. She would now have help to solve the trouble of the broken lives that had been gravely affected by one corruption: loveless human beings in the form of dignities.

Junia peeled her eyes from the table, hearing Elder John begin to speak slowly, thoughtfully. A look of concern covered his weathered face. She blinked in awe, realizing. That same face and those eyes of his had seen the miracles of the Master. His feet, now old and weary, had walked with the Master. Every step…he had been there, from his fishing nets, through the judgment hall, to the cross. He had witnessed it all.

“All you have told me, I believe, Junia.” Elder John looked her in the face kindly. “I hear it in your voice so I know that you do not lie. But to them who have spoken falsely, or—worse still as it has been proven!—half telling the truth, I cannot say yet.”

Junia nodded numbly.

“To tell a half-truth is worse than telling a whole falsehood for half of it is correct and half of it is deceit. What age we live in! What man with such evil breath within him!”

Junia wordlessly agreed. If somebody was to tell a lie, it would be better to tell a full lie instead of mixing truth with it. Truth should not be mixed with—for it would no longer be truth and therefore be a sin! I must always remember this.

“My Fil’os,” Elder John looked at her keenly, “may this be a lesson to you. Don’t speak a single sentence until you have conscience enough to speak a full truth.”

She nodded in affirmation, thankful that at last Elder John had come.

“What of the girl, your friend Andronika?” Elder John asked abruptly. “Has she returned to the church?”

At that, Junia shook her head and felt drained. Andronika. That was another sad tale.

“What?” Elder John’s white eyebrows furrowed. “Has no one tried to bring the girl back into the fold of Christ the whole time of my absence?”

“I spoke with her several times.” Junia took a breath, sadly looking up at the old man whose face was filled with concern and true brotherly love. “Andronika told me she tried to return to church. She was sent in for a meeting. But when she said she was wanting to come back to Christ, one even told her that she was…unsavable.”

“Unsavable?” Elder John stared at her in disbelief. “Why would somebody say such? If she was wanting to return, it meant she still had something in her. God never calls us unless we’re still His.”

“I know.” Junia was thankful to hear these words from Elder John. “And then she said most of the council told her it was useless for her to come back because her baby would never be saved.”

“Her baby?”

“She recently had a baby and she’s not married, I know.” Junia took a deep breath. “But what did Jesus say about such things? I want to know.”

For a moment, Elder John did not speak. But when he did, it was in a very solemn tone. “The Master said when He walked on earth that He came not to undo the law, but to fulfill the law.”

Junia nodded, remembering him saying that before, and became increasingly interested when he began an untold version of a story of the harlot found in sin.

“A custom of the law,” Elder John spoke carefully as he fixed his gaze into nowhere, “was to stone any woman caught in adultery. One day the Pharisees brought before Jesus a woman in that very case. They told Him by the law Moses gave to them that this woman should be stoned.”

He paused and looked into her anxious eyes that were hoping for her friend and her friend’s baby. “That day Jesus broke the law when He asked them if anyone there was without sin—for that person was to cast the first stone.”

Junia listened, believing Elder John’s words that were spoken with conviction and with desire to see justice and equality to the human race.

“Jesus knew what would happen. One by one, they began to leave—beginning with the eldest. At last Jesus told the woman—that woman who by the law should have been stoned to death—to go and sin no more. Does that answer your question about such things?”

“Yes, mostly.” Junia then admitted her other question—a question she wanted so badly to know. “The law says a person cannot enter the congregation of the Lord for ten generations when there has been born one out of wedlock. What becomes of Andronika’s child?”

“In the old days, whether it was the illegitimate child itself or a child within that ten-generation-span was all the same.” Elder John knitted his white eyebrows thoughtfully. “Not one person could enter the congregation of the Lord until ten generations had passed.”

Junia held her breath, waiting for his next words, hoping.

“But Christ came to save the Gentiles as He came to save the Jews, and where can we find that ten-generation-span of Gentiles where no one has been born out of wedlock? How can we go back four hundred years to prove their legitimacy?”

Junia shook her head as she did not know either. “I couldn’t be able to trace my roots further than my great-grandparents.”

“Thank you, Elder John, for answering my question even though I did not ask.” Junius Gaius spoke quietly as if in deep thought. “Junia, my own mother was not married when she had me. My father was rich, and my mother was a slave in my grandparents household. They weren’t Christians then. My parents later married when my grandfather gave my mother freedom.”

Junia stared at her father, shocked. “I never knew that!”

“I didn’t want you to know.” Her father looked disturbed. “I was too ashamed of the fact until Elder John’s words touched me just now. Whether the child itself or within the ten-generation-span is all the same.”

“In the old days, a murderer was cursed and left as a vagabond,” Elder John spoke of the other present issues, “yet Jesus said a murderer is he who hates his brother without a cause. Where would that leave us all? All vagabonds.”

There was followed a silence until Elder John broke it again with a calmly spoken statement that was filled with meaning. “Even though Jesus came to fulfill the law,” he looked each one in the face, “He also came to give grace to those who want it.”

Later, Junia crawled into bed feeling as though a great burden had been lifted off of her frail shoulders. She had told all. She had been right. Andronika and her child were still savable. Demetrius, the thief, the murderer, still had hope…even now. Her questions—those hard questions which had caused her so much pain and tears in the days gone by—had been answered. Now she could go to sleep…peacefully. She would wait, pray, leave the future to God…for He was there all the time, waiting for her to fully trust Him and believe Him. Lord, even though You are silent sometimes, Your Plan keeps unfolding. You’re moving Your power to show—that Your grace is sufficient. That Your way is perfect. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.

She fell asleep with this one thought in her calmed mind: God had answered right on time. He had sent His disciple, Saint John who was chosen to be called a friend of the Master.

~

“Now that I have heard the truth,” Elder John spoke the next day at the breakfast table, “we will have another meeting this very afternoon. They shall hear from me, these men who spoke so seemingly honest yesterday yet they left out the reason why Demetrius had left. They said he was dead…and yet they were the ones to begin his death by their poison of false words! May God have pity on their poor, blind, naked souls that stand so lacking in the face of truth itself!”

“Amen, Elder John.” Junius agreed, setting his cup of milk down. “I will go arrange the meeting and gather the elders together after we eat.”

“I need to check on the poor brethren.” Elder John looked over at Junia who had been quiet the whole time at the table. “Will you accompany me, my little granddaughter?”

“Yes, and thank you.” Junia looked over at her mother. “Shall I take the loaves of bread you were planning to take this afternoon?”

“Yes, that will be fine.” Eunice smiled at Elder John. “Thank you. I appreciate you taking her. You fill the void of a grandfather and I’ll be so much less anxious knowing you’re with her in the poor section of town.”

“Do not worry, Eunice.” Elder John said heartily, a little wrinkly-eyed with a happy smile. “Junia will be well cared for.”

Minutes later, Junia found herself entering the poor section of town with a secured veil and a basket of last evening’s loaves of bread to give to the hungry. “It makes me sad just looking at them.”

Elder John agreed, walking beside her.

Junia let her gaze wander from one thin face to another. To those hungry eyes which returned her gaze, looking so searching and scared of life itself. “I wish I could help them all. We do what we can, but…” She sighed. “But there could still be much more done as there are those who don’t give as much as they could.” She found a little boy watching her with hollow eyes.

“It’s a pity a rich man keeps so many servants.” Elder John wisely pointed out the error. “Such lazy men these days.”

“We dismissed our servants because of the money we spent on them.” Junia watched the little boy duck into an alley and disappear. “We didn’t need to be waited on and the money we spent for the servants is given to the poor.” Shalom, my little Fil’os, she told the empty alley where the boy has disappeared.

“That was a wise idea.” Elder John observed. “We need to give up the mere wants of life and give to those who need.”

They approached the house where the loaves of bread were to be given and there distributed. To those who need, Junia, she told herself firmly and decided what else she should do. Whosoever, whenever—God’s will be done.

A girl with scraggly hair and a tattered robe met her at the door with a wide smile. “Welcome!”

A Few Greek Words:

Fil'os: friend

Meh'tehr: mother

Pah'tehr: father

Adher'fi: sister

Adher'fos: brother